


O Christmas Tree

by Sincerely_Sierra



Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Coven
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Cookies, Christmas Tree, F/F, Fluff, Holidays, Yule, holiday fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 07:59:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17096879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sincerely_Sierra/pseuds/Sincerely_Sierra
Summary: It's Christmastime and Zoe and Madison decide to surprise Cordelia by decorating the house and making cookies. Too bad luck is not on their side when it comes to the tree.





	O Christmas Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: It was brought to my attention that one of my previous fics is very similar to that of someone else's, which I've not read yet. I'd like to say that I have no intentions to copy or use anyone's idea. I do not intentionally write anything that is too similar to someone else's writing. If I were to write anything inspired by anyone else's work, I'd give them credit and label it as such, because I think it's unfair to take someone's ideas. Any fics of mine that seem close to another author's are purely coincidental and I apologize to those who think I've copied off them. 
> 
> Anyway, happy Yule! Here's something just for the holidays. I've not yet read any of the AHS holiday fics from this year yet, but I'll get to it as soon as I get back home! Happy holidays and Merry Christmas!

  
Yule is two weeks away, Christmas is 18 days away. Zoe has been counting the days since the end of Thanksgiving. She went retro and hung up a calendar on her wall and is continuously crossing off the days with red and green sparkly pens like a fucking fairy came and threw up everywhere.

Madison is just Madison. She watches Zoe slowly fall into the spirit of Christmas, grasped tightly by the idea of hot chocolate and gift giving and all this other shit she's been going on about for weeks. They've yet to do any decorating around the coven, and Zoe relentlessly bugs Madison about it until she caves in.

"Fine! If you want to decorate, let's do it," Madison finally huffs on December 7th, when Zoe marks off yet another square on her calendar.

"I knew you would eventually give in," Zoe says with a grin, giving Madison a sloppy kiss on her cheek.

"Only because I love you," Madison says, rolling her eyes.

Zoe smiles and sits on Madison's lap, nuzzling her nose in the blonde's neck. Lately she's been quite clingy with Madison, but Madison can't complain, because she's getting a lot of wanted attention and kisses and the occasional hickey from it.

"I love you, too," Zoe says. "Now, let's go find our old decorations."

Zoe hops off her girlfriend's lap and races out of the room and down the stairs like it's already Christmas Day. A smile stretches across Madison's face when she hears Zoe giggle from the first floor. She's such a child sometimes, but it's a little refreshing. After all the stress and pain, Madison finally has a quiet moment she can spend with her girlfriend.

Downstairs, Zoe has already found a box of ornaments and tinsel. There's a large box next to her, where their artificial tree is. A real tree would be nice, but last year it made a huge mess and died two days before Christmas, and Zoe wants to surprise Cordelia when she gets home from her meeting in a couple hours. No time to go get a real tree now.

"Let's put the tree together!" Zoe says, excitement dripping from her voice.

"Fine."

With team effort, the girls manage to get the seven-foot artificial tree out of the box, in its three separate pieces. The bottom piece is rather large and Madison is rather tiny, so it's a real struggle for her to hold it.

"Zoe! Help!" she cries, attempting to lift the piece further out of the box.

Zoe grabs the other end and together they get the piece out and lay it on the floor. Madison looks at her scraped hands and sighs. The things she does for this girl. If anyone else were to ask her for this, she'd tell them to go to hell. But this is Zoe, and she's totally whipped for her.

"Alright, let me set up the base," Zoe says, kneeling on the floor in their living area where the tee stands every year.

Madison wipes her wounded hands off and admires Zoe as she passionately assembles the base. The younger witch stands up and attempts to lift the piece they just maneuvered out of the torn box, but it's hard, so she looks at her lovely petite girlfriend for assistance. With yet another eye roll, Madison lifts the pole side and helps Zoe ease it into the base.

"Great! The rest is easy," Zoe says.

"Okay, let's see you do it," Madison teases.

"Challenge accepted."

And so, Zoe takes the middle piece and raises it high, attempting to get it to click into the bottom part. It doesn't go over too well and the tree ends up tipping forwards, knocking Zoe over with the loose part in her arms. She falls back, head hitting the ground.

"Zoe!" Madison gasps as she bends to make sure she didn't bust her head open.

"That hurt," Zoe says.

Madison moves the part of the tree from on top of Zoe and helps the girl up. Zoe is clutching the back of her head and rubbing over the base of her skull.

"I think I need help."

Twenty minutes and some struggling and cursing later, Zoe and Madison manage to get the tree assembled. It stands tall and proud on its base, but they have yet to plug it in to see if it actually works after two years of storage.

"This was your idea, you do the honors," Madison says, motioning to the dangling plug.

With some weird sense of pride, Zoe smiles and kneels beside the outlet behind the tree. She plugs it in with hope that it will light up, but it doesn't, causing her to frown in confusion. Frantically, she unplugs it and plugs it back in. Nothing.

"Well, Sabrina? I don't see it lit up," Madison says, picking at her nails.

"I think there's something wrong with it," Zoe says.

Following the cord with her eyes, Zoe digs into the tree and pulls out a loose wire. It's been chewed to hell. Maybe a rat or something. Or maybe it ripped. Either way, it's fucked and the tree can't be lit.

"Maddie? It's chewed," Zoe sighs. "The lights don't work. We have to take this strand off and string it ourselves."

With a heavy scoff, Madison starts pulling the string of white lights off the tree, beginning with the bitten wire. It's surprisingly easy to unravel with both of their efforts. Zoe tosses them aside and unearths a brand new strand from the box of ornaments. Despite being unused, they are tangled up tightly.

"Really?" Zoe groans. "Can we have any luck today?"

Madison does nothing while Zoe struggles to untangle the lights. Instead she watches on in amusement as Zoe goes from untangling the strand to being tangled inside the strand. Her hair and sweater become caught on the small icicle lights and have her caught up.

"Oh, my god! Maddie! Don't just stand there! Help me!" Zoe cries in frustration.

It takes Madison awhile to stop laughing before she actually bothers to help her poor girlfriend. The dark hair attached the lights is the hardest. Madison tugs as much as she can without hurting Zoe, but it hurts anyway. It's like knitting. In and out, over and over, until the lock of hair is pulled free.

"Hold still," Madison says, working her way through the knots.

Finally, Zoe is freed, except some of her hair remains tied around a few of the lights. She moans and holds her head, yet again.

"We should wait for Cordelia and Queenie to come back," Zoe suggests. "It's a family thing to decorate the tree anyway."

Madison doesn't argue with that, because she's already sick of this holiday shit. When she turns to go back upstairs, Zoe is pulling out more boxes from the storage closet.

"I thought we were done," Madison says.

"The tree is only part of Christmas. We still have stockings and other things to put out. Then we can make some cookies and surprise Cordelia! Come on!" Zoe says, the excitement returning.

Madison groans and grabs a stocking. This is absolute shit, but Zoe's smile is worth everything to her. That's the real spirit.

+++

Zoe gets hurt several more times in the decorating process. She gets poked with thumbtacks when she hangs up the stockings on the fireplace and her fingers bleed, she trips on the abandoned strand of Christmas lights and scrapes her knees, and she knocks over some ornaments and they shatter across the floor.

"Maddie, let's just make the cookies. We can finish with Cordelia," Zoe suggests, picking glitter from one of the decorative figurines out of her hair.

"Fine. I feel bad that you're getting hurt, so I guess we can make cookies," Madison says, shrugging.

The two head to the kitchen and Zoe gathers all the ingredients for the recipe she knows by heart. It's her grandmother's recipe and the cookies turned out amazing last Christmas.

Madison wouldn't admit it, but she truly enjoys doing things with Zoe on their own, in peace and quiet. The stillness, the silence. No meetings, no Cordelia scolding them, no Queenie making jokes about their sex life. No nothing. Just them and the house.

"You got something here," Madison says, tapping flour on Zoe's nose.

"Hey! I will put flour in your hair!" Zoe giggles softly.

"Don't you dare!"

Zoe finishes mixing the dough for the cookies, and she flicks on the old radio sitting on the counter. Cordelia left it on the holiday station last night. _White Christmas_ begins to play and Zoe softly sings along. She wraps her arms around Madison from behind, kissing the back of her neck as the blonde rolls out the dough.

"What are you doing?" Madison asks, closing her eyes. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Loving you," Zoe whispers, giving her skin another gentle kiss.

They remain that way for awhile, Zoe kissing and Madison absentmindedly rolling, with Christmas music faintly playing in the background. The dough becomes flat, so Zoe pulls away from Madison to get the cookie cutters.

"Which ones?" she asks Madison. "Santa? Or gingerbread men?"

"Santa and the star," Madison replies. Normally she would say "whatever," but she's genuinely enjoying herself, whether it's from being dazed by Zoe's mouth or not.

Zoe smiles and gives Madison the Santa cutter and they both make little dough cutouts of Santa Claus and the classic star they use every year. They end up cutting out two dozen, and then they put them in the oven. As the cookies bake, Madison realizes what a huge mess they've made.

"Cordelia is going to kill us," Madison says.

Zoe takes a bit of flour and tosses it at Madison, creating a huge cloud of white.

"Hey! We already fucked up the kitchen!" Madison says.

"I know. Let's mess it up some more."

Madison likes this Zoe. The usual Zoe would demand they clean it up as to not get in trouble, but this Zoe? She's much better. Much more daring, even with something as trivial as dirtying a kitchen on purpose.

It turns into a flour fight. Both girls are covered head to toe in it, and they're laughing like kids. That is until the front door opens.

"Girls? I'm home!" Cordelia calls.

"Shit," Zoe mutters.

Cordelia wanders into the kitchen. "Girls? What's all this Christmas--oh, my god, my kitchen is a mess!"

Caught in headlights, Zoe and Madison freeze. Cordelia shakes her head and steps around the white disaster surrounding her.

"We. . .we wanted to surprise you with Christmas cookies," Zoe murmurs innocently, fluttering her eyes at Cordelia.

"And it made this mess?" Cordelia asks. "It looks like a white Christmas in here!"

"It was an accident. We'll clean it," Madison says.

Cordelia's face softens a bit. "Okay. Now, what is all that stuff out there? Why are the lights taken off the tree?"

"A rat chewed them, so we had to take them off," Zoe says.

"And then Zoe got tangled up in the new strand and here we are," Madison adds on. "Zoe wanted to surprise you, but it failed."

Cordelia chuckles. "Clean this up, wait for the cookies to come out, and then we'll decorate the tree when Queenie gets back."

With the music still playing, Zoe and Madison begin to clean up the explosion they created. Fifteen minutes and some damp towels later, the kitchen is mostly back to normal. Zoe peeks into the oven and sees her cookies are ready. Excited, she reaches to grab the pan and yelps.

"Ouch!" she cries, pulling her hand back. "Jesus Christ! I burned myself!"

Madison drops the towel she was holding and rushes to assess Zoe's wound. It's a slight burn, nothing to go to the hospital for, but she carefully rinses it under cold water.

"God, Zoe, you really are an idiot sometimes," Madison says as she puts an ice pack on the reddened skin.

"You love me, though."

"I do."

By the time Zoe's hand has stopped aching, the cookies have cooled, and Zoe places them on a Christmas plate to bring to the living area. Cordelia is trying to figure out how to untangle the lights without breaking them.

"Why is there hair in these lights?" Cordelia asks.

"Told you," Madison says. "Zoe got tangled in them."

"I got cookies!" Zoe announces, raising her plate in the air.

Queenie comes through the front door, peeling her coat off and hanging it up on the rack. Zoe's eyes light up, knowing they can decorate the tree now. She sets her cookies down and pulls the voodoo witch by her hand to the tree.

"Come on! We're decorating!" Zoe says.

"Oh, joy," Queenie deadpans.

"Come on, girls," Cordelia says, already beginning to string the lights from the top of the tree. "Grab it and start stringing."

With all four of them working at it, the tree is lit in minutes, beautiful soft white and twinkling. Cordelia steps back and admires their work.

"Before we decorate, it needs a star," she says as she digs a gold star from the box. "Who wants to put it up?"

"I will!" Zoe says. "Could one of you lift me?"

"I would, but I'm too small," Madison says. "Can't afford to break my back."

Zoe pouts and looks towards Cordelia and Queenie. Queenie rolls her eyes and steps towards the girl, placing her hands under her arms. Zoe jumps and Queenie lifts her as high as she can, and Zoe barely reaches the top of the tree. Queenie guides her until the star is settled comfortably.

"Oh, it's beautiful," Cordelia says as Queenie puts Zoe down.

"So is this where we sing _O Christmas Tree_?" Madison snorts, eyes rolling.

Zoe kisses her cheek. "Yes. Merry Christmas."

Madison hums contently, wrapping an arm around Zoe and pulling her close as they admire their tree.

It's not long before something cracks and the damn tree falls all the way over, base and star and all, and nearly shatters the window.

"Zoe, did you tighten the base?" Cordelia asks, fists clenched.

"I forgot. . ." Zoe's face goes beet red.

Cordelia relaxes before calmly saying, "Get your coats. We're gonna go get a real tree."

Madison laughs and kisses Zoe's forehead. "You tried, babe. Merry Christmas."


End file.
